Choosing Tenderness as We Grow

Years ago I had a garden.

It wasn’t very big, but it was mine.

I hauled the dirt and manure, carefully planted the seeds and around the edges I filled holes with orange and yellow marigolds to deter the bunnies.

My GG was a gardener and she would start basil from seed in her living room, they would grow in her bay window before the snow melted and ground thawed outside.

When my garden was ready, she carefully gave me the little seedlings to plant in my dirt.

Everyday I went out to check on my garden, I would look for the tiny sprouts that would one day become carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers.

I could hardly wait for the day when we could eat the sugar peas and green beans right from their vines as we lay in the warm sun, smelling the fresh cut grass.

The plants my GG gave me grew the best.

Especially basil, I had basil coming out of my ears! My basil plants were so big and tall it was as is if they were bushes that had been growing for months someplace else, not Minnesota.

I think those basil plants grew the biggest because they were cared for the most tenderly, their environment the most intentional and they were given the most time.

When I think of my life and the dream seedlings growing in my heart, I wonder if I have been as tender with me and my dreams as I was with my GG’s basil plants. I wonder if I have planted a hedge of bright flowers around them to protect the fruit of what will grow from someone who might want to get at it before it’s ready. Or if I make sure my dreams have the right environment they need to flourish, not only the necessary light and water, but the time needed to mature and produce.

I think at times we can be hard on ourselves, wondering why we don’t go from a seedling to a mature plant overnight. We try to force growth and then wonder why we can’t sustain the demand when it is simply because our seed didn’t have enough time to sprout and produce the amount needed for the calling placed on it.

To grow is a tender process. One requiring patience, grace, intentionality, protection and careful pruning (but that is another topic for another day).

You are a tender basil seedling, your dreams and ideas are too. You will grow and thrive in the right time as you tenderly care for yourself in the right environment.

Then, the crop will be abundant, and those who taste of all you have to offer will be grateful you tended to yourself so gently.